Originally Posted by shadowmite

A-ha! I'd say that's conclusive then. The people with Mark Levinson sound systems can't use the aux line; likely because of how the external amps are used to increase fidelity they route the aux line differently on those systems and you'll either have to custom wire to the "other side" of the amp or accept that it's bluetooth only for your cars. Perhaps the vendor will figure out an additional harness for that use case.

Originally Posted by Gottspd

I am afraid I’m going to blow up this theory. I have the ML stereo and mine works with the aux input.

Originally Posted by 4wheeler

Send the .apk to your email. Access that through your email on chrome. You can download the file and install it directly.

Originally Posted by decngb

Mine does not have the Mark Levinson sound. Can someone post or point to instructions for using the AUX input? Right now, I'm using Bluetooth and have to switch the connection on the phone every time I initiate or receive a call.

Originally Posted by qvtruong

Originally Posted by decngb

I want to get Netflix working too. Following the instructions, I click on the file to download and the browser window flashes, but I don't see any progress bar. The first time, the browser asked for access to storage, which I gave it.The next step asks me to swipe from the top of the screen to get the notifications. I can't figure out how to make that work, but I am able to look in downloads. I see no new files there. What am I doing wrong? I checked in the file browser, and can't locate anything. Any pointers are appreciated.

Originally Posted by Bearcat

I’m a little frustrated with the android box....people can barely hear me over carplay in Bluetooth, sometimes not at all; aux won’t work; switching inputs causes the Bluetooth connection of audio to stop. Wish carplay was just stupid standard. Should have been.

Originally Posted by decngb

I'll answer my own question. I knew how to switch the car to AUX input, but I wasn't getting any sound through the speakers from the Android Box. The key is dip switch #3 on the Android Box - flip it to the low position. Have the car switched to AUX before plugging in your phone and then it should work. The car's microphone seems to work fine too, although there was a delay of a few seconds before I was heard on the other end of my first phone call. I'll do more testing on that in the future.

I've now disassembled and reassembled everything 4 times, and I'm very good at it. If anyone in the Atlanta area wants to see the thing in action before purchasing, or wants help with doing the install (including hooking up to an external monitor if needed), let me know!

Originally Posted by 4wheeler

Hey Guys,

Some of my findings detailed.

Ordered on 2/28 and received on 3/14. Turnaround time of 15 days - not bad I would say.

Installation Tips:
I am not very inclined to DIY projects. First time opening car stuff. Took me couple of hours to fix it all.
The challenging parts were opening the car power plug. It was very tightly plugged in and I had to yank it very hard to open amid fear of breaking it

The centre silver plastic piece is fragile and needs care while opening. Don't pull it from the corners - apply pressure only on the thicker parts.
I could find sufficient space for planting the unit below the AC vent. The screws that hold the head unit are angled away from sight and its a little difficult to get to.
I used the 10 mm bolt opener. Bought the 20 PC SAE/metric Craftsmen set from Lowes.

I have run my USB wire outside, just above the cigarette lighter port and stuck it on top. Nothing is visible. Will post a pic later.

Post-installation Issues:
1. I could not get the system to detect my iPhone. The phone was not charging and the display gave an error -
“Please insert the box into the USB port of the car”. Had to open the system again and reconnect the USB cable to make it work.
Make sure to test the car play and audio out before you assemble everything back.

2. The car play display was stretched like some other members here. Clearing the cache and data for the car app in android and system restart fixed it for me.

PROS:
1. The audio is routed through AUX and the quality is much better than Bluetooth. So the audio box is just another audio source like Sirius / FM.
I am not sure why qvtroung has connected the box with Lexus BT. Maybe AUX was a feature developed with the last update. qvtroung if you could share some light here.
2. Steering audio controls works to change tracks.
3. Phone answer and hangup buttons on steering work with CarPlay - possibly because my phone is connected to Lexus via bluetooth as well, and the Lexus app is invoked but not displayed ( since android unit is on top). I will check this, just out of curiosity. [ Update - when phone Bluetooth is off, call and hangup buttons do not work. Down button to answer calls. So answer calls work with BT in background but shows up in CarPlay ]
4. Press and hold answer button invokes Siri. [ Update : Not when Bluetooth on your phone is off. ]
5. Car mic works for the android box. So I can invoke mic audio input for google maps / waze.

Issues (rather scope of improvement):
1. The parking sensors do not display automatically on the screen when you are parking in Drive gear. The sound still comes and you see the sensors on the small LCD screen but not on the main screen. This is the biggest flaw in my opinion.
2. My iPhone X barely holds charge when connected with the carplay dongle. In post 51 qvtroung has shown charging mode options. Will play around and see if that helps. [Update : Charging mode was always set to strong. Battery went down to 40% from 44% in 45 minutes commute. CarPlay was on with music playing ]
3. The remote touch **** feels different after I reintsalled everything. Its a little stiffer and at times continues movement after I remove my hand. I can live with it but its annoying and surprsing - considering I did not touch that for installation. [Update: Force feedback driven from the OEM system. So it will pull/push against you in comparison to where the mouse is on the factory display. Thanks shadowmite ]
4. Sometime screen freezes on google maps in CarPlay. The audio alerts are fine but map position does not change. I go to the Android display and restart CarPlay and it starts working.
5. Skipping to next track via steering control skips 2 songs. Annoying. Work around to use the next button on display in CarPlay. But you have to use the ****.
6. Static sounds when you start the car. I can live with this. Will probably not happen if you switch the source from AUX or mute the system when turning off.
7. I loose audio at times when playing music through CarPlay. I think it happens all the time when I switch mode. Found a work around to invoke Siri to get the audio back in AUX.
Sometimes when I switch audio, a small display pops up - nav Speak - true. Thats the indicator if sound is turned off. Its a bug and should be fixed with a software patch.
Anyone else notice this and know a way to access it and keep it always on.
8. NEW - Cannot make calls when phone Bluetooth is off. The receiver could not hear me. Answering calls work fine.

Thank You qvtroung again for all your timely inputs and reassurances here.

Originally Posted by Onion

Do you find your left and right channel flipped? For mine unit if I use AUX, left sound will come out on right, right will come out on left. I also find that AUX's sound is not as clear as bluetooth for some reason, not sure why.

Btw I have ML sound system and AUX works for me, just flipped and worse quality than bluetooth.

For charigng, I tested with the dongle(slow), directly to the USB port from the unit(slow) and plugging the dongle into a 5V2.1A USB output(still slow). So it looks like the restriction is on the USB port and the dongle.

Just sad of how poorly Android Auto is. Not the seller's fault, it's mainly Google's.